Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I can't remember the track going away so fast during qualifying and it's happened both nights.  For the qualifying to award the same points as the A main needs to change. There are a ton of mediocre cars/drivers scoring much more points than better guys just due to the pill draw (ie Lance Moss... A 360 driver from the USCS). Really frustrating to watch good cars come out and struggle to break 16 sec...when a crappy car could get. 15.6-15.8 just because of draw.

+1  Too much luck involved instead of driver.  Even if they run well in the A for that night, it's tough to get the points needed for Saturday night.    Hopefully next year the track will be better.  On a brighter note, we should see some good passing in the c and b features saturday!

And this Swindell accident is a direct result. A bunch of slower cars in front of the faster guys that know they have to be aggressive.  That being said, I really don't think that's what happened here exactly, but still a problem

No change needed, except maybe going back to full invert and maybe 12 lap heats. 

It's hard for me to say the Knoxville Nationals format needs to change...however; I do believe the past few years really points out how the luck of the draw can dictate the outcome for the entire 4 days. So many cars are evenly powered and there's a lot of decent drivers that can lay down a sub 16sec. lap nowadays.  I like the Nationals format, but there's got to be a way to make the luck of the draw (qualifying) less important and the on track performance (heats / features) more important.

I like the idea of splitting qualifying into four groups -- two groups on Wednesday and two on Thursday.  First half of qualifiers are a separate group than second half.

I don't know what you'd do with awarding qualifying points, however.  

It's been an incredibly wet year in the Knoxville area. As in repeated flooding of State Highways in Marion County. Just a bad weater year.

It sounded like the Swindell accident happened when Ed Lynch had a bad start and Swindell who started 3 rows behind him ran into Lynch. Lynch is no slouch and on the restart he had no problems and qualified for the feature.

Good idea.  I'm sure that is something they could figure out. 

give it a rest its knoxville thats the format deal with it. why the hell does everyone think they have to reinvent racing. thats why kings royal and knoxville nationals are so special there format is there trademark so let it go.

I have a question and was wondering if anyone could explain why Friday night they take the top 4 from the feature and not the top 4 in points for the night when basically it's the same format as Wednesday/Thursday with qualifying,heats, and C-main and 2 B-mains. Other than the 2 B-mains isn't it the same as Wednesday/Thursday? What if a  Anyone have an opinion on this?

Besides the change that is not needed.......... Schatz in the front row saturday and will win it, schatz can start in the b then transfer and win it so the outcome saturday when the checkers fall is schatz,  dont matter about a stinkin format it just dont, who you want to have a better chance??? Lets say for instance you want stevie smith to win, you can put him on the pole saturday and schatz start 19th and schatz would pass him for the lead before the fuel stop and that would be the result, what we need is schatz to go race late models fulltime so its a fair knoxville nationals, hehehaha Schatz......... Get used to it cause he is still young and he is just that dang good

That format sucks big time. They wore the track out hot lapping and if you weren't in the top 10 or 15 you were screwed for a good time. Too much on time trials when you have that many cars if you draw a late number. Not sure what the answer is, but it needs changed.

Sprint Cars Do It On Dirt!

Format has been the same for a while. Luck of the draw. Just make the heats 12-14 laps long. Also bring back the Scrambles and only take the top 2 in Friday's A main to the Big Show. 

Northern California Sprintcars

+1

I am not sure the original complaint about Thursday night's time trial results hold up very well.   

Quick time in each heat transferred directly to the A main, with two wins and three third place finishes.    Only 2 of the top 15 in time trials did not make the A main,  at least one broke (wrecked?) 

I think the OP's complaint is valid. A perfect example of this in last night's show is this:

Gary Taylor and Kevin Thomas Jr qualified 11th and 12th, purely due to luck of the pill draw.  They have limited experience (if any) at Knoxville. Dusty Zomer and Mark Dobmeier qualified 33rd and 44th, due to (bad) luck of the pill draw.  Zomer and Dobs are very experienced Knoxville guys - no way they ever get beat by the previous two mentioned at Knoxville. Dobmeier didn't even make the invert, so his Nationals is screwed before it gets started - purely due to luck of a pill draw.  Too much emphasis and points are put on qualifying.  The format is what it is and it's probably not going to change.  But I do understand the original poster's complaints.

Their Nationals are not "screwed". They have a perfectly fine opportunity tonight to race their way in.

When you have 112 cars crammed into 2 nights, some cars are gonna get screwed by whatever format you run, it's inevitable.  Every crew that showed knew what the nationals format is.  No changes are needed, hell I'm still unhappy they went to an 8 invert instead of the traditional 10.  112 drivers, car owners, and crews have spoken by attending.

You just have to do the best you can each time you are on the track. If the track was to stay good all the way through qualifying then the track would be to narrow for the heats. There would be no passing then all the fast guys would have to run the B. Then only 4 of them would make it to the A. Then we would have people saying so and so shouldn't have been in the A. the guys that have a chance to win the whole thing still make it no matter what pill they draw.

Take the wings off